The former internal watchdog for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission violated ethics rules by overseeing investigations that touched on people with whom he had “personal relationships,” an outside review found.

Kotz also shouldn’t have opened an investigation related to R. Allen Stanford’s Ponzi scheme because he was friends with a female attorney who represented victims of the fraud, investigators said in the 66-page report.

The outside review of Kotz’s activities was led by David Williams, the inspector general of the U.S. Postal Service. It was requested by the commission after an investigator in the inspector general’s office raised allegations about Kotz’s personal conduct. The report, dated Sept. 17, was released in response to a public records request.